There’s No Escaping Jamie Oliver. In the Netherlands He’s a Jumbo Star

When I lived in the UK I got used to seeing Jamie Oliver TV adverts for Sainsbury’s. They were a regular thing for around 11 years (2000 – 2011). Then there were all the Jamie Oliver TV shows. My wife and I used to call him Jamie Olive Oiler because he always seemed to be so generous with the olive oil. Judging by this YouTube Video I just found, we were not the only ones to notice the guy has somewhat of an obsession with olive oil.

I live in the Netherlands now and there is no escaping Jamie Oliver. His TV shows are shown here with Dutch subtitles, his cookery books are are available many of the bookstores, and he has partnered with one the biggest supermarket chains in the land. It’s called Jumbo (pronounced Yumbo) and they sell quite a diverse range of “Jamie Oliver” products. As far as I know there are no Jamie and Jumbo TV advisements, but who knows what the future may hold.

Jumbo is my favourite supermarket. I do most of my grocery shopping at Jumbo, but I had no idea they have a Jamie Oliver range. Then a couple of weeks ago I was looking for something different to try and my eyes drifted from one shelf to another. This is what I saw:

It opened my eyes to the fact that Jamie Oliver must be more popular here than I thought. I started looking at the other shelves more carefully and saw lots of other Jumbo Jamie Oliver products.

When I got home I did a little research. He appears to have partnered with Jumbo last September and, at the moment, there are over 50 different products in the range. His deal with Sainsbury’s was worth around £2 million a year. How much money he will be raking in from Jumbo is anybody’s guess.

It’s kind of strange to live in another culture, speak a different language, live like a native, and see all this Jamie Oliver stuff, but it’s good to see the lad is doing so well.